Can digitalization improve agriculture? Exploring the impact of ICT on grain food production in SAARC countries.

This article investigates the long-term impact of information and communication technology (ICT), specifically mobile phone and Internet usage, on grain food production in seven South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Pakistan—using balanced panel data from 2002 to 2019. Employing the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) alongside panel unit root, co-integration, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests, the study finds that both mobile phone and Internet use significantly and positively influence grain food production across all quantiles. Additional factors such as cropland and agricultural employment also affect production, while overuse of chemical fertilizers shows a negative impact. The findings suggest that enhancing ICT infrastructure and farmer training in rural SAARC regions could improve agricultural productivity and food security, supporting policy measures to invest in ICT expansion and reduce access costs.